[C]UMBRIA O&M Services (COMS), a leading UK provider of Operational, Maintenance and Engineering services to regulated industries nationwide, have recorded a landmark safety milestone this quarter with an impressive 100,000 continuous hours worked without a lost time accident (LTA).
The milestone is a double accomplishment for COMS as they reach their first 100,000 hours worked since the company started. The company has grown rapidly year-on-year since foundation in 2014, and 2018 is already forecast to be the strongest year yet.
The achievement is testament to COMS’ OHSAS18001 accredited safety culture and the company is a proud member of RoSPA (Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents). The organisation provides full pre-operational requirements – including O&M strategy, documentation and end-user training – for the transition of major projects into fully operational facilities via its team of more than 40 carefully selected O&M professionals. The team are experienced in highly regulated industries, including nuclear; a task that requires the highest level of safety discipline.
COMS Co-Founders Cliff Woodman and Dave Garratt and Operations Manager Grant Taylor have worked hard to instil safety behaviours that have kept COMS on the right track throughout its rapid growth.
Business Director, Cliff, explains: “We work in high risk, but highly regulated, environments that have a safety-first culture. Demand for our services were high from day one and we knew that to grow at pace we would need to find a way to ensure all our team members went above and beyond to deliver first rate work on-time, to budget but most importantly safely. From the very start COMS have developed and implemented robust safety arrangements designed to deliver real results across a range of diverse project environments.”
Operations Director, Dave Garratt, elaborates: “We conduct regular risk assessments throughout the lifecycle of every project, we run safety awareness discussion sessions with the teams and share LFE via regular tool box talks’ that hone in on specific topics. On top of that we make sure we do a lot of tried-and-tested team engagement to help build and maintain a strong safety culture and associated behaviours. Our team members can be spread across different sites, projects and client areas so it is important that we share a consistent approach.”
Operations Manager, Grant, has led the team for every hour of the milestone and is quick to praise the actions of the workforce: “COMS was founded with a safety culture designed not to meet, but to exceed, client expectations. Our number one priority is to ensure all our personnel remain safe and well from the moment they set off to work, to the moment they arrive home to their loved ones. We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a company and the commitment from each of our team members is reflected in every single accident free hour.”
The milestone clearly reflects COMS values of Safety, Efficiency, Customer Value, Excellence, Relationships and Teamwork.
Client John Murphy, Operations Manager at Atkins commented: “It has been a pleasure for Atkins to work alongside COMS and watch them develop into an incredibly competent and high performing organisation. Reaching the milestone of 100,000hrs worked without incident, during a period of transformational growth for their business, is a fantastic achievement and demonstrates their understanding of what it takes to be successful in our industry.
Trudy Harrison, MP, added: “It is fabulous to learn of COMS achievement, particularly as a new SME, working in our highly regulated nuclear industry. Copeland has a proud record of world class skills combined with safety. I wish COMS all the best for their future growth, and expansion into other sectors in the UK and beyond.”
To date, much of COMS work has been carried out in the nuclear industry. With year-on-year growth steadily rising and demand for COMS services growing, the company is now looking to expand into other sectors including Power, Defence and O&G Decommissioning.
